


Rememoro

by blua and oro (vehlr)



Series: Blue & Gold XY-XX - Mainverse [5]
Category: Blue Beetle (Comics), Booster Gold (Comics), DCU (Comics), Justice League International (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-25
Updated: 2014-08-25
Packaged: 2018-02-14 16:45:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,288
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2199345
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vehlr/pseuds/blua%20and%20oro
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>(remembrance) - Ted has a lot of catching up to do. Michelle has a lot to believe.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rememoro

Three days pass.

Ted barely sees Michelle, between the publicity stunts and temporal emergencies, and when she is around she finds reasons to avoid him. It is almost like living with a ghost, except she was not the one who had died. He begins to wonder if he had said something wrong. And whilst Rani is adorable and Michael is a nice enough guy, Ted finds himself feeling completely out of his depth. He needs a friend. He needs a good friend.

Fire comes over, misty-eyed the minute he opens the door.

“Oh my god. _Ted._ ” Her voice is almost reverent as she takes him in. He smiles, opening his arms, and she all but pounces on him, wrapping her arms around him tightly and squealing. “Ted! Oh my god!”

“Little less volume?” he groans, but he cannot feel anything but joy as she presses a kiss to his cheek.

“Oh, honey! I can’t believe you’re – you’re here!” She pulls back to cup his face. “Oh my god. You beautiful man. You’re alive.”

“Almost got the whole set.” The voice of Booster Gold makes them both jump, the woman standing in the hallway behind them shaking her head slightly at the sight of the pair.

“Whole set?” Ted asks. Bea pushes him inside, turning to the other woman and shrugging.

“Not sure I _want_ the last one. Where were you? Leaving poor Ted all on his own!”

“Someone’s got to feed him,” replies Michelle, holding up a tray of coffees and a brown bag that promised something delicious. Ted reaches out, but is thwarted as Booster leans in to hug Fire. “How are you, Bea?”

“Still in shock! You?”

“Oh, you know…” She shrugs, ushering the woman in before closing the door. “Adjusting. How’s Tora?”

“Tora? Wait, Tora’s _alive_?” Ted all but grabs the two women, stunned. “And this wasn’t important enough to tell me?”

Bea glances between the two, somewhat confused. “You didn’t tell him?”

“I’m busy,” shrugs Michelle, pulling away to put things down. “Besides, that was almost a year ago. I can’t be expected to bring him up to speed on _everything_ , can I?”

“Apparently not,” Ted mutters, but Bea drags him over to the couch.

“Ignore her, she’s clearly too focused on Fabio’s ass.”

“Fabio?”

“Her boyfriend. Well, ex. Or are you two back together now?” Ted almost gets whiplash from turning to stare at the woman, but she is unfazed.

“What Fabio and his ass do is no longer my concern, officially. Our break-up, whilst messy, was long overdue.”

“And unofficially?” Bea probes.

“He’s a dear friend who wanted a leg up the ladder of fame, and now he’s in a comfortable position to start looking for work.” She turns to wink. “And his new boyfriend is _really_ cute!”

They laugh, and Ted can feel his understanding of the situation getting away. “I don’t think I really get any of this,” he admits plaintively, and Bea pats his arm.

“Most of us settle for a more normal romantic situation,” she promises, “but some of us are idiots -”

“Hey!”

“- and can’t handle a real life.”

“That’s not fair!” whines Michelle. “I can absolutely handle a normal life!”

Ted does not believe that for a second. “You’ve been out more than you’ve been in. Literally. Do you even _sleep_ anymore?”

She looks indignant, but shrugs as Bea reprimands her.

Ted feels warmed by Bea’s presence. After a few days of near-seclusion, he is hungry for news from the world he has yet to catch up on. But more than anything, the silence of the unsaid past hangs over him like a threat, and he decides to ask her about it… after coffee.

 

***

 

He waits until Michelle is distracted, and thankfully it does not take long – her phone rings and she excuses herself to discuss a new strategy with her agent.

“Bea… what happened?” She raises an eyebrow in question, and he shot a careful look at the kitchenette where his best friend made more publicity plans before continuing. “To me. My death… nobody’s said.” She stiffens and shakes her head, and he sighs. “Was it that bad?”

“Honey, it was awful for all of us. You know when people talk about a dark period in their lives? That was it, that was our moment. It was worse than Sue, worse than Tora… everything that followed was hell.”

“But why?”

“Perhaps I can be of assistance, Master Kord.” Skeets hovers into view, and Bea visibly relaxes. “Accessing databanks. Videofeeds available.”

Ted leans forward, eyes bright with curiosity. “Video? Of my death?”

“Negative. Video footage of the reaction of Booster Gold, and subsequent events following the death of Ted Kord. Video archives of the previous two years, Earth-time, also available. Audio testimonials also available.”

“And that’s my cue to leave.” Bea straightens up, leaning over to wrap an arm around Ted’s neck and planting a kiss on his cheek. “Much as I love having you back, I don’t need the reruns. We’ll meet up soon, okay? You, me and Tora. When you’re ready to face the world.”

“Sure thing,” he smiles, waiting until she closes the door to turn back to Skeets. “You said the past two years… but it’s been almost three since I died, right?”

“Affirmative. I was out of commission for 365 days. Audio available from Booster Gold regarding the year following Ted Kord’s death.”

“You were out of commission again?”

“Affirmative.”

“What happened? How did Booster deal with that?”

“Badly,” she interrupts, flopping onto the couch opposite him. Her face remains drawn, eyes avoiding him as she reaches to nudge Skeets. “But we’re telling this story all out of order.” She pulls her visor off, nodding to the robot to begin playing the holographic images.

“Accessing data.”

Ted watches as the scenes play out – Booster Gold shouting at Batman, broken goggles clutched tightly in her grasp; a funeral – his funeral, with crying friends and a woman in blue and gold unable to speak; Booster clinging to a coffin, desperate tears rolling down her cheeks. The reality of his death begins to sink in, the reality of just how hard she had taken it, and he wants to say something, anything, to try and undo that heartache. But she does not give him the moment.

“Maxwell Lord killed you.” It is abrupt, and stuns him like a shot. He meets her gaze, trying to read the emotions in those blue eyes. She gives nothing away. “And Wonder Woman killed _him_ , which didn’t go down well with a lot of people. But Bea was right – for us, it was hard. We’d lost Sue and Tora, and then you, and then the floodgates opened and all hell broke loose as Max tried to wage a ridiculous war. And there were a lot of bad things that happened – a lot of good people died, and a lot of friends stood by whilst others struggled – but somehow the world kept turning and humanity survived.” She shakes her head, letting out a long breath. “I hated it. People got hurt, people died, and none of it made any sense to me. That wasn’t our Max, not that… not _him_. And in the end, I just… I went home.”

Ted straightens up, frowning. “You went back to the 25th century?”

“Yeah. Although that didn’t last long, naturally. There was a lot to do, a lot to clean up after all the chaos. And then other things started happening. A new Blue Beetle – Jaime, you’d like him – he took up the scarab, saved the day, and… well, let’s just say the big three disappeared, and the world didn’t really know what to do after that.” She runs a hand through her hair, a slight smile on her face. “What better time for an up-and-coming commercial hero to make her mark, right?”

“That didn’t exactly go according to plan, though, right?” murmurs the man, mirroring her smile.

“Does it ever?” She grins, and for a second the old Michelle is there; the hair was longer and the eyes not quite as bright, but somewhere underneath the wariness and weariness was the girl he had fought alongside all those years ago. He leans back in his seat as she continues. “Long story short, it was a hell of a year. We had to fake my death, and I had to beat myself up – literally – to work out exactly who was pulling the strings.” Skeets plays the news footage of Booster’s apparent death. “That one – Supernova? That’s me. All part of the act.”

“Isn’t that a… guy?”

“I’m a good actress.”

“I’m mildly terrified.”

She chuckles. “He’s actually still going, Supernova. Sort of, anyway. Rip gave the suit to my ancestor, and he decided the best use for it was to play online games. Good old Daniel – the Carter genes at work.”

“And the skeleton?”

“That’s… well, me. But not _me_. I’m still not going to ask Rip how he got hold of that, I _really_ don’t want to know. But anyway, we worked out that Skeets was the problem – or rather, the being inside the shell of Skeets.” She regards the robot fondly. “Another friend I’d let down.”

“Mistress Carter, if I may,” interrupts Skeets, “none of these events were your fault. And as you would say, it all was as well as it ended.”

“All’s well that ends well, buddy,” she corrects, smiling.

“Affirmative,” concurs the robot, bumping lightly against her arm before showing more scenes – this time of the double life Ted was learning about. Scenes showed his best friend showboating and signing autographs, before cutting to sequences of times gone past where she had seemingly corrected and protected the important points of history.

Barbara Gordon’s terrified face flashes up, and Ted holds up a hand. “Whoa, whoa, is that Babs?”

Booster pinches the bridge of her nose. “Yeah, Rip was trying to teach me a lesson. You can’t change established events. And I tried, _god,_ I tried -”

“Mistress Carter, the next images are -”

“I know, I know. The lessons aren’t important. Thanks.” She reaches to stroke his chassis and Ted’s curiosity is heightened. Had she succeeded in changing something? But Skeets continues his playback. Through images of parallel worlds and time-lines that now never existed, he sees their version of his memories of secret adventures – his brief time with the woman from his future, and the sadness in each smile suddenly becomes all too clear. Ted wonders how she must manage it all.

And then he sees something truly horrifying. A Beetle mask in shades of black and grey, and teeth that would give any dentist nightmares.

“What the hell is that?!”

Her voice is cold. “Skeets, skip video.”

“No, I want to-”

“No, you don’t.” She stares at him hard. “You _really_ don’t.”

He almost believes her. “What happened?”

The silence fills the space between them, and he regrets asking for a moment. She leans forward, one hand rubbing the back of her neck as she considers her words. “They called it the blackest night. Those Lanterns… there was a black power battery, somewhere. And their rings… well, they took the dead and gave them – something. Not ‘life’, but _something_. And… one of them was you.” She shakes her head slightly. “Funny thing is, you saved yourself. I borrowed a light gun from the old warehouse – worked a treat. Got you and the ring separated long enough that me and Jaime could get you away, and we took you to Vanishing Point.” Skeets shows the footage of the three of them watching the chronal screens. “No finer place for a hero. We should have put you there in the first place.” She smiles, the sorrow painted all over her face as she watches the feed. Ted reaches out to touch her arm and she blinks, turning to face him. There is a spark of something in her eye – he thinks for the first time in three days she might just believe that he is here to stay – but she smiles too tightly as she waves a hand to Skeets to continue the footage.

“Anyway, Hal and Guy got everything sorted in the end. White Lanterns became a new thing, some people came back for good… it was all a bit confusing, to be honest.” At that prompt, Maxwell Lord’s face appears again, and Ted finds himself almost calling out as the video shows Booster fighting him. She growls at the images, slipping into her native tongue for a moment.

“ _Filo de kapro._ He came back and made the entire world forget that he ever existed. Everyone but the old team.” As the scenes show members of the old JLI falling apart, Ted finds himself wondering why Max had taken his old team and dishonoured each and every one of them.

Michelle looks away as Jaime is shot, and Ted thinks there is some meaning to the act – was that how he had met his fate? - but she continues talking. “We won, in the end, but…” A sigh escapes her. “It was hard. Harder than the first time. I wanted to kill him, and he… he called me out. Got away and made himself… I don’t know, untraceable. Nobody can find him It sure doesn’t feel like a victory.”

“And since then?”

“Since then… well.” She spreads her hands, gesturing to herself. “This is it. Small apartment, double life, saving the world before it knows it needs saving… just me and my buddy and the big bad Rip. I’ve got Michael when he swings by, keeps me grounded, and there’s little Rani – you know that story – and that’s it, really.”

Ted lets out a long whistle. “How do you keep track of it all?”

“Practice,” she drawls, “and Rip. I hate to admit it, but he’s really kept it all together for me.”

“Any closer to working out who he is?”

“Not even remotely. I think I’m just going to have to live with that mystery.” Her eyes close as her head falls back against the couch, a soft exhale causing her to sink further down. “But there you go. Anything else you want to catch up on?”

“I, uh… guess not.” He rubs the back of his neck awkwardly as she shrugs, making to get up. “Wait, I -”

“Oh!” She snaps her fingers, remembering something. “Kord Industries, of course. Wayne Enterprises bought out the company, but it still operates under your name. Bruce made a big show of your continued legacy. I’m, uh… I’m not sure you’d be able to work there anymore, but they’re making great strides. Give Bruce a call -”

“No, I meant…” He moves, sitting next to her and taking her hand. “Do you remember… do you remember when I came to visit you at Goldstar, way back? Our big fight when you joined the Conglomerate?”

She frowns. “What’s that got to do with anything?”

“Do you remember what I said when we made up?”

“Ted, do _you_ remember?” A look of fear crosses her face. “Are there gaps? Did you… miss something when you downloaded?”

“No! Just… do you remember?”

She hesitates for a moment, before shaking her head slightly. “I asked if I had to get down on my knees and beg, and you said ‘well…’”

“’It’s a start’.” He grins. “You never did, though. I should have pushed for that one.”

“I _did_ apologise, though,” she points out.

His hand tightens around hers slightly. “Hey, remember when we went to do that clean-up job? Nuclear sub. Big money. It was going to be our last ticket out of our respective bad situations.”

“We never made it there, did we?”

“We got attacked. That crazy woman.” He laughs. “Did you ever find out what happened to her?”

“I was too busy sulking over the fact that Superman beat us to the job and we didn’t get paid.”

“Not our finest hour.”

She laughs with him at that comment. “Yeah, not so much.”

“Remember our very first battle together? When you were proving your worth to the JLI?”

“We came up with a plan. God, how did we even think that up?”

“Honestly, I thought you were stupid for thinking it would work.”

“But it did!” she giggles. “It really did!”

“Yes, but I was an ass back then.”

“We both were.”

“How about when we, ah… helped Jonn with his addiction?”

“I cannot believe we got away with that. I _still_ cannot believe we go away with that.”

“Mars needs cookies,” growls Ted, and Michelle cackles, leaning against him to keep herself upright. They had laughed for hours in the Bug thanks to that impression, back in the day, and he finds himself unbelievably relieved that it still works. As she calms down, the small giggles still shaking her, he tilts his head and states plainly, “’Chelle, it really _is_ me. I promise.”

“Ted…”

“I’m not an idiot. I didn’t expect you to just… accept it right away. You’ve mourned. You’ve moved on. But… look, we were fine for a day and now you can’t even look me in the eye for more than a moment. I was your best friend for years. If you can’t believe the science, then believe _me_.”

“I…”

“Mars needs cookies,” he murmurs, “and I need you. I’m not… I’m not ready to be left behind by the whole world.” He sighs. “I can’t be the Blue Beetle anymore – everything’s moved on, and I’ve got a lot to catch up on. But I can still be Ted Kord, sometimes-funny guy who makes machines that might help out occasionally. And even if my heart condition comes back -”

“Alleged,” whispers Michelle.

He blinks. “What?”

“ _Alleged_ heart condition.” She sniffs. “Never proved. You’re a superhero, Ted. Superheroes don’t get – don’t get…” He feels her shift, trembling as she wraps her arms around him. “Ted…”

“It’s alright, ‘Chelle. It’s all alright.” He holds her close as she cries into his shoulder, pressing a soft kiss against the crown of her head. “It’s all okay now. Promise. Not even a – an _alleged_ heart condition is going to slow me down, okay?”

“Don’t… don’t leave me alone again…” she sobs. “I can’t… not again…”

“Hey, it’s alright. I’m not going _anywhere_ , I promise.” He squeezes her gently. “Remember that time you died? And I built you a suit to keep you alive, with that ridiculous robotic arm? It’s almost a tiny bit like that, except… well, except for the suit and the arm and everything else, I guess.” He smiles as she laughs weakly against him. “My point is that… that I’m sort of in a new suit myself. Whole new body. New arms, same messy hair, bit younger, less of a belly this time around, but who’s asking… and, hey, I’m staying in the same flat as my best friend, which is a first and it’s great, but I’d very much prefer it if she wouldn’t run away from me every time we were in the same room. Is that alright with you?”

She nods, clinging to him as if letting go would cause him to disappear all over again. “Ted… oh, my Ted…”

“Ooh, people _will_ talk.”

“Shut up,” she laughs, wiping at her face as she pulls away again. He cups her face in both hands, wiping the tears away with his thumb. Her cheeks were red and puffy and her face a streaky mess, but the smile was there and there was something of the old Booster about that shine in her eyes. He grins, watching her face light up as she mirrors him.

“There she is. There’s my best friend.”

“Hey, Ted?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m really, _really_ glad you’re back.”


End file.
